2016

Hi QT. I want to thank everyone – including those that joined and left again – who’ve been part of QT in 2016; a year that I think everyone can agree has been… challenging. Which is not to say there hasn’t been good stuff – there has!

IndieWeekend in February was a great success. It was a lot of stress for me, a whole bunch of panicking from Syn, and a whole collection of really awesome games from some fantastic streamers.

We also had our first ‘official’ QT meet-up in Texas in October. It was a lot of fun. Completely nerve-wracking for me, since I have sometimes terrible social anxiety. But, in the end, despite my installing a plethora of games on my laptop ‘just in case’ nobody turned up… everyone that said they were going to turn up, did in fact turn up. I had a great (and oftentimes lazy) vacation; probably one of the best ones I’ve had in a long time, primarily because I got to spend it with friends and I didn’t feel much of the usual holiday-based internal nagging to go out and do stuff that my social anxiety prevents me from doing anyway. I highly encourage other people to start organising some meet-ups, because they’re totally worth-while!

But as I mentioned previously, it isn’t all happiness and roses. I’d like to think that this is growing pains; that we’re encountering some bumps in the road that any collection of people go through when they reach a certain size and struggle to grow any further: goodness knows that fits the bill.

I’ve (personally) had a great deal of concerns raised in the latter part of this year pertaining to toxicity. Toxicity in this respect relates to a number of different things:

Not being welcoming to new users, or our being overly suspicious of new users’ intentions and allowing our actions to be tainted by that opinion.

An ‘old guard’ mentality. Or, as I refer to it – people who have been here for a while thinking they can get away with stuff because they’ve been here for a while.

Negative attitudes. As mentioned, this year has been a bit of a rollercoaster, with what feels like a lot more downs that it’s had ups. But I think this is more of an opportunity for us to create a haven away from all the stuff going on in the outside world, rather than reflect it. That’s part of the reason the #feels channel exists.

A lot of this lies specifically with my fellow admins and moderators. For a long time we’ve had some vague guidelines in terms of what you can and can’t do, and while I think it was a good idea at the time (I wrote them), I want you to know we have been working on some actual rule-rules, because we’ve collectively made it clear that we’re not mature enough yet to handle ourselves with guidelines alone.

I know not everyone is going to be happy with the re-introduction of rules, but it’s something we want to try. These rules are not going to be extensive; just a few notes of things that you need keep in mind. I’ll be finalising these rules today (before I start drinking, obviously), getting some feedback from mods/admins tomorrow and then putting them live. It’s nothing to extreme or intense though, don’t worry.

So I would like to wish everyone a happier and more prosperous 2017. A year where we can get past QT’s awkward puberty phase. A year with more events; for both good causes and for ourselves. A year with more meet-ups and gatherings. A year where we can be the best community we can be – for ourselves and for others.

If you are willing to work with me to make this community as awesome as it can be, then I’ll make a personal pledge; stick by me and I’ll stick by you.